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[Meistermoxx]

When i embark i always have 2 miners, farmer/herbalist, cook/brewer, leader/administrator, woodcutter.
Then i have other important jobs like carpentry and masonry distributed but i have yet to find a satisfying build.

Also, i always bring 8 or so turkey hens and a gobler for spamming easy food.

PS: this is for a Neutral wilderness area with plenty of water, ore, fish and herbs.


What preparations and skills do you pick, and how would you suggest i improve my build for efficiency and such?

[Garath]

drop mining. Mining now only affects the speed, so got less important.

I usually get 2 dedicated grower/brewers, 2 with a few points in either the skills for exp leader or bookkeeper/manager, 2 with mechanic and well, that's pretty much it That I really want to take for skills

[WealthyRadish]

6 military dwarves (3 proficient dodger/teacher, 3 proficient armor user/teacher) and a protonoble with proficient persuader, novice appraiser, novice judge of intent, and competent consoler. I've also started bringing copper nuggets and 3 fire safe stones to smelt the 7 picks for digging out the fort. Much, much cheaper than bringing them premade. Wooden training axes can be used instead of metal ones, so two logs is enough to start cutting, if the site has trees. Booze isn't really needed, since someone can just gather some plants and brew some early on, and food isn't needed either since the starting draft animals provide a ton of meat. The rest of the points I put in bituminous coal, since that stuff's OP. 

The reason for armor user and dodger is that I find them to be the most useful skills that aren't taught through sparring at all. They'll be blocking every attack with their weapon when they reach legendary in their weapon skill, rather than dodging or taking the hit. Dodging is a bit of a stretch, though... sometimes it causes issues in combat, so I might swap it out for something else, or just go straight armor user.

[Sutremaine]

You can take their weapons off them if you want, which will train their Shield User skill (a heavy shield actually makes a decent weapon). Training Dodger is riskier, since you need to take their armour off them to force them to dodge. Do you split the dwarves into three squads of two?

Bronze is better than copper if you can get the cassiterite. It uses one fuel every two ore instead of one fuel every ore, and it's a much better material for weapons and armour. It's also more valuble.

I always skip Mason and Carpenter skills -- I need certain pieces of furniture to exist so I can make a dorm, a barracks, and an office, but their quality doesn't matter. I do bring a miner though. Once I start digging, I want to have the space available for use as soon as possible, and untrained miners are painfully slow.

[Doren]

1 armorer/clothier
2 weaponsmith/broker
3 metal smith/crafter
4 mason/stonecrafter
5 mechanic/carpenter
6 brewer/grower
7 cook/ambusher

The first three are given picks, 4 to 6 are given axes and the last one - a crossbow and quiver.
So i have all my starting seven armed.
Supplies: anvil, 20 threads, 20 logs, booze, seeds and 2 cat. Sometimes i add additional food or 20 stones instead. That's enough for me.

[WealthyRadish]

I'm not sure why people bring masons and carpenters... chances are all the early beds are going to be replaced with masterwork/exceptional anyway, and all the furniture phased over to metal.

The 6 military dodger/armor user skills are more long term than short term, with sparring being the short term. They're split into pairs, with two hammerdwarves, two axedwarves, and two speardwarves, and only leave that when they're put into squads with other legendary soldiers trained later. Labor is usually pretty tight starting out, with most of the population in the military sparring. But yeah, I'll probably swap out dodger for something else... I've considered striker, since they're always slapping things with their axe butts, but I don't really want to encourage that kind of behavior more... Biter could be funny, since I do recall one nude axelord (with only a training axe and wooden shield) ripping a goblin general's arm off with his teeth, while the goblin was mounted on a giant olm... I checked the fort later for engravings of that historic moment, but alas, there were none.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm not sure why people bring masons and carpenters... chances are all the early beds are going to be replaced with masterwork/exceptional anyway, and all the furniture phased over to metal.

1. Not all forts have access to metal.
2. Carpenters churn out beds quickly. They cut down trees quickly. Their beds aren't worthless.
3. Masons, ditto.
Time is expensive in the early game.
4. Two to three military Dwarves with extensive micro can provide all the protection a fort needs until the migrants arrive. That's when you can start a fully fledged military without squandering all chances for setting up a fledgling fort before the migrants arrive.

[WealthyRadish]

All a carpenter's needed for are 7 beds, though, and the mason only needs to make some blocks, doors, and a few tables/chairs for the dining room. Most of my early furniture is actually glass, since it can be done before the picks are made.

Though really, it's a dumb thing to argue about, since everybody plays differently, and there's no wrong way to do it... except in an evil embark, in which case there are about a million wrong ways to do it. 

Edit: Oh, bronze! I hadn't thought of that. I'm guessing cassiterite is only 3 points, and that would allow for decent weapons/armor on embark as well.

[terko]

Seven Peasents with seven Picks and one Axe
 
Tons of food and booze to not need anything until next Spring.

1 Male, 3 Female of each bird.

That's all, may the embark be great.


All following waves are assigned to labors like carpentry, a dedicated wood cutter, masonry and anything else. Food production will start next year's spring.


Works fine so far, you get used to.

[Sutremaine]

All a carpenter's needed for are 7 beds, though, [....]

Edit: Oh, bronze! I hadn't thought of that. I'm guessing cassiterite is only 3 points, and that would allow for decent weapons/armor on embark as well.

Might as well just make 2 as 7. Two beds are enough to make a barracks and a dorm (really it's just to stop dwarves from napping out in the open), and seven aren't enough once migrants start rolling in.

Cassiterite is 6db. The only metal ore worth 3db is bismuth.

[Loud Whispers]

All a carpenter's needed for are 7 beds, though, and the mason only needs to make some blocks, doors, and a few tables/chairs for the dining room. Most of my early furniture is actually glass, since it can be done before the picks are made.

Though really, it's a dumb thing to argue about, since everybody plays differently, and there's no wrong way to do it... except in an evil embark, in which case there are about a million wrong ways to do it. 

ftfy
Although what's wrong for others is perfect for yet more still.

Regarding the first point, the carpenter is for life. If all you're going to do is make 7 beds and retire the Dwarf for good, there's no reason for bringing points in carpentry in the first place. Stone is rarely absent from a map, but magma is often never found until a fort reaches a point of maturity. And some forts are devoid of clay or sand entirely. Well beyond the resources the starting 7 can find. Which is why if you want to make furnished rooms, masons and carpenters are mandatory. Varies from embark to embark, and playing style, like you mentioned.

Oh, not to mention cages, bins and of course beds.

[DavionFuxa]

What preparations and skills do you pick, and how would you suggest i improve my build for efficiency and such?

I won't answer what you should do, how you plan you build depends on what your play style is like and what you plan to do in the Fortress. I will tell you my build however and perhaps you can get some ideas on what to do with yours.

For Preparations in a new Neutral Embark, I'm thinking of building on my current build as follows for next time. I assume the some wood is available, though if there isn't I only adjust my build slightly to compensate for it - like reducing threads, cloth, leather, and gypsum plaster to 2 (4 for one that doubles as medical supplies):

• Dwarf 1 : Proficient Grower
  Dwarf 2 : Proficient Carpenter & Proficient Bowyer
  Dwarf 3 : Proficient Mason
  Dwarf 4 : Proficient Stonecrafter
  Dwarf 5 : Proficient Speardwarf & Proficient Shield User (or Proficient Armor User)
  Dwarf 6 : Proficient Marksdwarf & Proficient Dodger
  Dwarf 7 : Adequate Doctor Skills (5)
• Copper Picks x4
  Training Axe x1
  Copper Spear x1
  Quiver x1
• Gypsum Plaster x3
  Wool Cloth x6
  Wool Thread x6
  Cave Spider Silk Cloth x3
  Cave Spider Silk x3
  Pig Tail Cloth x3
  Pig Tail Thread x3
  Leather x3
  Rope x4
  Bag x5
• Plump Helmet Spawn x20
  Pig Tail Seed x5
• Dwarven Ale x30
  Dwarven Beer x30
  Dwarven Rum x30
  Meat x20
  Fish x20
• 1 Male Dog
  2 Female Dog
  1 Male Cat
  1 Sow
  1 Boar
  

Alternatively I might switch the Military Dwarf to us Swords instead of Spears and take a Copper Sword instead of a Copper Spear, drop the Training Axe (it isn't that hard to use wood from the Wagon to make one to cut wood with), drop the Boywer from the Carpenter and take a Copper Crossbow, drop one of the Female Dogs and add second Sow, and throw the remaining 5 leftover points into the Mason to give him Building Designer or give the Stonecrafter Appraiser or take 5 more seeds (lot you can do with 5 points).

Alternatively again, I could use War Hammers instead of Swords or Spears, giving me 15 excess points to play with.

So why do I think this Embark set up?

I like to have the Melee Military Dwarf and Ranged Military Dwarf for Early Defense. It's happened before that trying to go without a couple military Dwarves has resulted in 'instant fun'. Even in my recent let's play, going without weapons because I planned to make them and the picks resulted in 'fun' with Polar Bears. As such I'm not doing that sort of thing again.

It should be noted that for the Shield/Armor user swap, this is dependent on the wood available. My thinking is that if there is wood available or little metal, the Dwarf can be best served by the Carpenter quickly making him a Wooden Shield to defend the others.

I bring no Miners and 4 picks because in this version, Mining is regulated when you need to dig FAST in the beginning - like for an Evil Biome embark. However, the picks are useful in the long run since if I need to mine a lot of stuff at any point, I can just designate more miners from the Idler pool.

I use to bring Administrative skills but have since found them less then useful. I only bring skills for one noble, the Chief Medical Dwarf; the rest of the Nobles will come from Migrant waves.

I bring 1 Grower and give him no other skills since in the long run, he won't be Cooking or Brewing - Brewing in Particular has no quality so an unskilled Dwarf is as good as a skilled one in that regard - and multiple unskilled Dwarves are as good as one skilled one with regards to output and which also reduces the amount of idlers I usually eventually get.

I bring the Stonecrafter since I usually like Rock Pots in the beginning and he can go on to make Crafts, Toys, Mugs, or whatever else for trade afterwards.

The Mason and Carpenter come for the quality work - even if there are no trees I want a competent Carpenter to make nice beds for my Dwarves. The Mason of course is also important for designing much more.

For supplies I bring ample food and drink to last till Autumn when the Dwarf Caravan arrives, seeds to grow at Plump Helmets and one additional crop for Brewing initially. Personally I like Pig Tails since those eventually double for the clothing industry.

I bring a weapon for the Melee Dwarf and a quiver for the Marksdwarf, along with a few ropes and bags for wells, or other needed things. Rest of the supplies is dedicated to Strange Moods or the Hospital.

[Snaake]

I used to just use the DFVIDSTUT setups which also come with the lazy new pack (and are named for, and usedin, the tutorial videos by captnduck), which were basically (at least the 2012version): broker/miner, miner/mechanic, craftsdwarf, carpenter, farmer/cook/brewer, axedwarf/woodcutter, hunter/marksdwarf. Or something like that. Also some birds, a pair of sheep, and a couple of tools and some seeds, booze, meat, and sand optimized for free bags&barrels.

Then I dropped some of that stuff, and mining skill completely, and took 6 picks, then 3-4 picks. Even if mining still affected drop rate, initially you're not mining for the material, you're mining for the space, and mining trains pretty fast.

My most recent embark had a foodguy (farmer/cook/brewer etc) and a couple of workers with masonry, carpenting, mechanics and such, and the remaining 4 with proficient teacher for all and 1 each of axedwarf, shield user, fighter and dodger. The idea is that they'll make pairs of two and train each other, then swap etc., and eventually start teaching another dwarf each. No animals except a male cat and a pair of dog this time round. Loads of ore, some bituminous coal.

Another big factor that's likely to become a habit, which I recently started paying more attention to in embarks, is I hate (items), that is, stuff not produced in my fort and enclosed in regular brackets because of it. I'm therefore bringing/buying (on embark/from caravans, respectively) less and less end products. Instead of bags, cloth or even thread, instead of tools/metal, ores, and so on. Mostly I now only buy seeds, animals from the elves and metal ore/bars/scrap from caravans, with bolts being the exception (single bolts formed by shooting become scrap anyway). Sometimes in necessities I'll get food/booze and such, and wood is of course needed on some maps. (Items) need to be processed into something else though by melting/crafting/wood burning, and (barrels)/(bags)/(bins) get sold to caravans if any are empty when it's caravan time.

My most recent embark has a volcano, is mostly wilderness with some haunted mountains (flat though, and only has soil) on the northwest side, sand, clay and soil, a brook, and according to what I recall from the site finder, deep metals and flux stone on the 2 biomes that aren't the haunted biome. I have grand plans for obsidian-cast fortresses and green glass magma plumbing. Also nicely solves my secondary peeve of stone furniture and constructions being made from a bunch of different materials; I'd prefer my fort to be uniformly colored, with maybe some colored highlights (metals, blue stones...)

[WealthyRadish]

Regarding the first point, the carpenter is for life.

Ah, I always hold out for one that likes beds. It makes the grind for masterworks all the easier. Same with the mason and other permanent positions... while the starting seven may not have compatible preferences, you're pretty much guaranteed a migrant that does, eventually. My current fort has obsidian, for example, and so when I got a dorf who likes obsidian, he was an excellent candidate for being the mason/mechanic (the one who actually crafts things, not the hordes of architect mechanics), whereas none of the starting seven had that preference. He actually got a masterwork mechanism in before the first caravan, starting from dabbling. Again, I guess it comes down to playstyle. But since the wagon comes with 3 wood, it is pretty much impossible to fail in a non-evil/glacial biome, unless a giant badger spawns on the wagon or something.

[Xenos]

You can take their weapons off them if you want, which will train their Shield User skill (a heavy shield actually makes a decent weapon). Training Dodger is riskier, since you need to take their armour off them to force them to dodge. Do you split the dwarves into three squads of two?

Bronze is better than copper if you can get the cassiterite. It uses one fuel every two ore instead of one fuel every ore, and it's a much better material for weapons and armour. It's also more valuble.

I always skip Mason and Carpenter skills -- I need certain pieces of furniture to exist so I can make a dorm, a barracks, and an office, but their quality doesn't matter. I do bring a miner though. Once I start digging, I want to have the space available for use as soon as possible, and untrained miners are painfully slow.

I tend to use bismuth bronze for the higher value but it requires you to use bars :/